Bodhidharma in China
   

The origin of Chan as a school, however, is often associated with the arrival of the monk Bodhidharma around the 6th century C.E. to spread his vision of the Dharma to China.

Many schools of Buddhism already existed in China at the time of Bodhidharma's arrival, with many translating and teaching the scriptures that had come from the Buddha's India. Bodhidharma was not a Dharma master in the sense that he gave discourses on the teachings. Rather, he was a highly attained sage, and after he arrived he was said to have meditated for nine years facing the wall of a cave.

This decision is related in one of the legendary stories of Bodhidharma that has been passed down for over a thousand years. It is said that when Bodhidharma arrived in China he met with the emperor, who, having sponsored the construction of a great many Buddhist monasteries and temples and patronized the teachers of the various Buddhist sects, assumed that he would gain much merit in the form of a happy and prosperous reign and an auspicious rebirth. But according to legend their dialog went as follows:

When the emperor did not understand, Bodhidharma crossed the river to Shaolin, where he meditated in a cave for nine years.

Bodhidharma became a pioneer in China of the practice of dhyana, or meditation, as a method of penetrating the essence of mind. While he may not have been the first, his impact was the profound and long-lasting. 

Bodhidharma's unique contribution was to espouse a method of practice that dispensed with words and ritual in order to directly realize the nature of mind. He established a practice tradition based on the principle that to discover mind's true nature one begins by contemplating mind itself. In a nutshell, Chan practice is about training the mind to contemplate its true nature, which is that of a buddha.